Adaptation

There's no good reason why this should work-the picture is a schizzy, self-indulgent mess-but magically, it does.

Adult stuff only but hilarious and fresh.

In the wrong hands, the lunacy could have gotten out of control, but Jonze has near-perfect pitch. He never forces the farce, rooting even Kaufman's wildest digressions in real emotions.

For two-thirds of its running time the film is close to genius. But there's still no third act.

Just go see it. Immediately. Today. There are far too few films that make one giddy and excited about the art of making movies. Adaptation is one of them, and it is for the ages.

It's the sort of movie that keeps reinventing itself and nudging us in the ribs as it does. You'll want to see it soon, because everyone you know will be talking about it.

While not quite as absurd as Being John Malkovich had been, Adaptation was indeed plenty weird. (20th anniversary)

This is, essentially, a long demonstration of why not to give people more money for them to prove a point about how bigger-budget filmmaking is inherently an artistically self-defeating proposition.

This ceaselessly clever, brilliantly mind-bending film taps into the intangible spirit of Orlean's book by involving the viewer in Kaufman's painstaking translation to the screen.

Aside from a few mild swipes at the commercial film industry and New York pseudo-intellectual circles, the film is rather toothless.